sukupuita

Sukupuita is a Finnish linguistic term that arises from the noun sukupuu, meaning “family tree.” Sukupuu itself is built from suku (family, ancestry) and puu (tree). Sukupuita is the partitive plural form of sukupuu and is used when the speaker refers to an indefinite number of family trees or to a portion of such trees.

In ordinary Finnish, sukupuu is most often used in the singular or plural nominative as sukupuut. Sukupuita, by contrast, is used when a partitive sense is required—when the statement is about some of the family trees or about an unspecified amount of them. For example, a sentence might use sukupuita to indicate “some family trees have been documented” or “there are pieces of information about family trees.”

Etymology and form: The term combines the elements suku and puu to convey a genealogical metaphor. The appearance of sukupuita reflects Finnish morphology rather than a distinct lexical concept. It is primarily a grammatical form used in contexts that call for the partitive case and plural.

Usage notes: Sukupuita does not designate a separate field or category beyond its grammatical function. In most genealogical or historical writing, writers would use sukupuut (plural nominative) when referring to multiple family trees in a general sense, reserving sukupuita for partitive constructions within sentences.

See also: Sukupuu, Finnish language, Genealogy, Family tree.